Costas returns: Talks to STF about his eye problems

Tonight after spending six nights off the air NBC prime-time host Bob Costas, red eyes and all will return to his duties. He is expected to finish out the rest of the 2014 Winter Games without any more eye problems.

The eye issues that have kept him off the air for almost a week are clearing up and he is now ready to return to his primetime anchor chair that has been filled by Matt Lauer, and Meredith Vieira.

Talking today to Costas from Sochi via conference call we spoke about his eye problems and what he has been doing the past six days.

JW: Were you ever concerned that your eye problems could be worse than you had first thought?

BC: Once the doctors felt confident that is was a case of conjunctivitis then it was just a matter of time before the virus ran its course. So, to answer your question I really did not fear that I had something worse than a virus in both of my eyes.

JW: What did you do for the six days that you were stuck in your hotel?

BC: Well NBC was great because they hooked me up so that I could watch all of the feeds from my hotel room. So, I had both NBC local from New York and LA plus NBCSN, CNBC, USA, Bravo, and NBC Sports Live Extra. I was able to follow all of the action of the events from all of the networks. I must admit however that for a brief time I did sneak a peek at Syracuse – NC State game, hey I have to watch my old school whenever I can. I also did go down stairs to the coffee shop from time to time as well as to go out at night on the balcony of the hotel to get some air and to look out at the Black Sea. But the key was to stay in dark places and I followed doctors orders.

Costas did also say that he really did not have any idea that his eye problem would cause such a stir in social media telling me “This was a viral virus.”

He ended the call by thanking his replacement hosts, ” Both Matt and Meredith were super, they are outstanding broadcasters as well as friends.”

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